FARMING IN NEW ZEALAND.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 153, 27 June 1908, Page 5

FARMING IN NEW ZEALAND.

A LESSON FROM DENMARK. HOLDINGS DESIRABLE. (By -TeleeraEb.—Press Association.) CHBISTCHURCH, Friday. Mr Johann Hansson, of Gothenburg, has returned to Christchurch from the Cheviot Settlement, to which he made a special visit. In giving popular lectures in Sweden he had selected New Zealand, and he frequently- referred to Cheviot, and showed lantern slides of scenes on the settlement. It was with some regret that he learnt that the operations of the dairy factory ahd been discontinued. He came from a country where dairies and intensive farming were the order of the day, and he found some difficulty in accepting the theory that the large farms he saw in New Zealand were altogether desirable. The farmers in the Dominion seemed to him to have far too mnch land Mr Hansson said that he believed it would be better to have a kind of sliding scale for rents of Crown lands. He though* that the lands should be valuetl every five years, and that the rents should be based on the Government valuation. Rents would then increase and decrease •with the values. The lessees shield always be able to pay the rents, and on the other hand, they would not be induced to sell the goodwill at a great profit. Speculation would be stopped and the lessees would give all their attention to the cultivation of their farms. He stated that in Denmark them were 160,000 small fanners making a tying on the land- . :. - ~V ,